[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 205 (Monday, December 8, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S8522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                               HEALTHCARE

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I would like to read a few quotes from some 
of my Democrat colleagues from the past couple of months.
  This is from November 6:

       We did fail to bring down the cost of healthcare.

  This is from September 30:

       Now, right now, we have a broken health care system. Nobody 
     can afford health care.

  This one is from December 3:

       I think we all agree there's brokenness in the whole 
     system.

  Again, from December 3:

       As much as we disagree on things, I just want to note the 
     underlying agreement that this system needs a lot of reform.

  Now, as I said, all of these are quotes from my Democrat colleagues 
in just the past couple of months. Every quote is an implicit admission 
that ObamaCare has failed.
  Back in 2009, of course, Democrats were arguing that ObamaCare was 
going to fix healthcare. This is a quote from that time:

       [A]n historic bill that will finally reform our broken 
     health care system and help millions of our families and 
     small businesses get the coverage they need at a price they 
     can afford. It is about time.

  That, again, was a senior Democrat Senator from back in 2009.
  Or in the words of the Democrat leader:

       Who would have thought that we could finally get a handle 
     on the thing that is driving our budget deficit to great 
     heights, which is health care costs, and at the same time do 
     so much good by covering so many people?

  Well, contrast that with the words of the Democrat leader today:

       [T]he healthcare crisis is so deep and so real.

  ``The healthcare crisis is so deep and so real.'' In other words, 
Democrats' great scheme to fix healthcare--ObamaCare--has failed. So 
what are Democrats proposing to do this week? Introduce reforms? 
Perhaps try a different approach? Well, no. That would be wrong if you 
assumed that. They have announced plans to throw good money after bad. 
They proposed a clean, 3-year extension of the enhanced ObamaCare 
subsidies. ``Clean''--no reforms, no revisions, just billions of 
additional taxpayer dollars to prop up part of a program that has 
utterly failed to reduce healthcare costs.
  Since 2013, premiums for ObamaCare enrollees have risen 221 percent--
221 percent. In other words, this program is doing the very opposite of 
lowering healthcare costs. And as if soaring premiums weren't a big 
enough problem, the exchanges are rife with potential for waste, fraud, 
and abuse. A damning report from the Government Accountability Office 
released last week found that the exchanges continue to enroll fake 
individuals, are improperly paying out subsidies, and are failing to 
ensure payment accuracy, potentially putting taxpayers on the hook for 
millions or billions in improper payments.
  So I might just show you. This is what the GAO found--the Government 
Accountability Office--and this just came out literally just this last 
week. This was a finding on their behalf--on their part: ObamaCare 
subsidies granted without documentation to 90 percent of fake accounts.
  So what the Government Accountability Office did is they ran an audit 
of the exchanges in which these insurance policies change hands and 
found that 90 percent--90 percent--of these fake accounts were granted 
subsidies without documentation. Think about that. Ninety percent of 
these--this investigation--these accounts they checked--they created 
fake accounts to see if, in fact, they would get a government subsidy, 
and they did. There is a 90-percent failure rate in this program.
  So we have spiraling healthcare costs, a program incredibly 
vulnerable--as is evidenced--vulnerable to fraud and abuse, and, again, 
Democrats are proposing that we do absolutely nothing--no reforms, no 
revisions, no safeguards; just billions more in taxpayer dollars.
  Republicans have made it very clear that we would like to work with 
Democrats to address the affordability of healthcare and find solutions 
that actually reduce costs, but, as Democrats have made clear with this 
``clean bill,'' they are not really after healthcare solutions. They 
seem to be OK with a 90-percent fraud rate. They are after a political 
issue to attempt to batter Republicans with during this next election 
year. If that means a proposal to throw more money at a program they 
know very well--very well--is failing--it is documented--then that is 
what they are going to go with.
  I will quote again:

       As much as we disagree on things, I just want to note the 
     underlying agreement that this system needs a lot of reform.

  Again, those are the words of a Democrat Senator, and she is right. 
The system does need reform--and a lot of it. It is too bad Democrats 
aren't interested in making any.

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